Mowing OSHA is watching

[grsthegreat]

Interesting, I was told by an OSHA employee at a safety seminar that OSHA does not hand out fines. There sole perpose is to point out potential safety concerns and then how you deal with them are up to you. He indicated that quite frequenly these reports are also reviewed by your insurance companies and these blood suckers use this as an excuse to raise your premiums.

Roy

nope nope nope..they LOVE to hand out fines. Ive been fined by OSHA a few times over the years. they fine people in Wash and Idaho all the time. Basically, everything you do is illegal according to them. I was fined one time for not wearing a hard hat INSIDE a classroom while installing electrical cover plates.......mine you, the classroom was full of students ...and they wernt wearing hard hats.

government regs = SUCKS

 

[grsthegreat]

I bet OSHA would have something to say about my ladder also

 

[boxygen]

I work for a large general contractor which does work that varies from large commercial to residential remodeling. We typically have at least a dozen jobsites going at one time. OSHA has been around quite a bit lately. It has resulted in a few fines. A few of the jobsites the inspector has parked outside the jobsite for a few hours waiting for something he doesnt like. A subcontractor opened the bottom sash of a window to communicate with someone on the ground. We were sited because the window sill was lower than the 42" guardrail height required for a fall hazzard. This was in finished space. On another jobsite we were sited because a bundle(banded together) of steel decking was sitting on the metal floor joist waiting for installation. They were not "Secured" to the joists so they couldnt blow away. The bundle probably weighed several thousand pounds. Im all for safety, but this stuff doesnt pass the straight face test. The inspector said quite explicitly that OSHA will be expanding their focus on residential work now to create more revenue. There is lots of low hanging fruit in residential work and a lot of people just plain dont make an attempt at safety in the residential world but if these are the things they are out to enforce they they will pretty much shut down the industry. They just abolished the Residential Fall protection rules for wood framed buildings. This allowed workers to not be tied off in certain stages of framing because it creates a greater hazzard in many cases. Not any more. Tell me, what do you tie off to when you are building the roof? The floor 15' below you or the unbraced trusses that you are installing?
Its a very sad state of affairs.

 

[Don87]

I bet OSHA would have something to say about my ladder also

By the time they got done laughing, you would make a clean getawy and be drinking a cold one:thumbsup::thumbsup:

 

[grsthegreat]

yup, OSHA hasnt a clue. I was fined once cause i didnt strap myself off the the man lift i was operating. Instead i strapped myself off to the red iron roof that was 30 feet in the air. I told the inspector that if the lift goes over, i wanted to stay attached to the ROOF....NOT THE COLAPSING man lift. they didnt buy it. My employer paid the fine. I continued to tie myself off to the red iron.

 

[not2old]

The Workers' Compensation Board here in B.C. once told me to attach the lifeline to the roof by driving a 4" nail through the shingles to hold the bracket. This needed to be done every 8 to 10 feet along the roof while cleaning the gutters. Try and explain that to a strata council. Their gutter cleaning costs rose from about $4500 to just over $10,000.

Another time I was delighted to tell the inspector that he wasn't allowed to step foot on my new home construction site because the area wasn't safe for workers and I had no plans to make it safe until some workers were going to work there.

 

[tungularafishcamp]

nope nope nope..they LOVE to hand out fines. Ive been fined by OSHA a few times over the years. they fine people in Wash and Idaho all the time. Basically, everything you do is illegal according to them. I was fined one time for not wearing a hard hat INSIDE a classroom while installing electrical cover plates.......mine you, the classroom was full of students ...and they wernt wearing hard hats.

government regs = SUCKS

He was only looking out for your safety, just think what could have happened if one of those kids hit you in the head with a spitball:laughing:

 

[jake98]

Tell me, what do you tie off to when you are building the roof? The floor 15' below you or the unbraced trusses that you are installing?
Its a very sad state of affairs.

You heard about the roofer that tied off to the lady's VW bumper on the other side of the building, right??

 

[Short Game]

Time to watch the movie, Brazil, again. In the movie, OSHA is called, "Central Services."

These guys:

 

[Baby Grand]

Tuttle, the renegade HVAC repairman!
Did they ever catch him?

 

[Short Game]

Tuttle, the renegade HVAC repairman!
Did they ever catch him?

The paperwork got him in the end. RIP

 

[Kernopelli]

I wanted to add to this thread with a recent OHSHA tale involving a friend who is a roofing contractor. Earlier this year he had an agent show up on a residential job for a spot inspection and left him with a cumulative $10,000+ in fines for 3 separate violations. He was at first told that he could make a formal appeal but it would likely not result in a reduction in fines. He told the agent through phone communications that he did not want to file a formal appeal but would like to try to negotiate. The agent said he would have to discuss it with his supervisor and a month or so passed between each communication but each time they offered him reductions to the fines. Last week he was contacted by the agent and was told his supervisor had given him approval to settle for $3,200. My buddy flatly refused him :shocked: and told him he couldn't afford it and said he could give them $1000...period.:thumbsup: He then said if forced into collection, court procedures or whatever it is they do at this juncture he was just going to have to file a formal appeal and they could try to get any fines levied.....he had a $1000 bucks. Good luck.

The agent hem hawed for a second and without even putting him on hold said "OK, I'm certain my supervisor will approve $1000 with the stipulation that you report all future jobs for the next 6 months before starting them". My buddy wrote them a check and filled out some paper work they had already given him and sent it off. Yesterday he received his official notification that his ordeal was settled. The kicker is, the agent had seen his operation, knew he had been in business 20+ years, how many employees he had, seen a list of past and present jobs, etc and had to be able to surmise that my friend wasn't a fly by night operation, that he very likely had a reasonable cash flow and certainly had assets. Yet he settled for a greatly reduced amount because my buddy simply stood his ground and acted poor.........Cool,whatever works.

$10,000+ reduced to $1000 without an appeal or any real threats of being hauled to court or jail. The whole thing really flies in the face of everything I've heard or thought I knew about how they operate. My advice to anyone facing a similar situation is sit back for a while and be cool. Let them make the follow up contacts etc. and if they pressure you to settle quickly tell them the trouble with being poor is it takes up all your time....you'll do what you can when you can. This strategy worked well for my buddy.

 

[Mark Page]

OSHA damned near put my father out his 25 year old printing business with BS fines of $50,000. The one thing I remember was not having and illuminated exit sign over the one door to the shop. The old man said "you got in here and you've forgotten how to get out".
He was so angry he called the lawyer who made it all go away for a $1,500 fee.
The oldest lie in the world:
I'm from the government and I'm here to help you.

 

[Dead Horse]

Government is a disease.......... this is the proof.

Liars, cheats and thieves, every one of them.

 

[jpm1]

I guess if you look at it OSHA is a value to the Working class but. . . The Gov. as far as im concerned over steps their authority and places unreasonable fines on the back bone of the country without giving us a chance to fix the problem on the spot! Their a bunch of Money Hungry Thives!. . .This is only my opinion remember, John

 

[jake98]

How do they come up with their numbers?? Almost seems like they pick a price that they know would put someone out of business.. :confused2:

 

[speedy2]

In 1980 I was pushing a crew of carpenters on a power house construction job and we were told two weeks ahead of time when OSHA would be there so we could clean up the jobsite and put plastic knobs on the ends of rebar that stuck out of the concrete. And put up hand rails where there were none. After they were gone everything went back to normal. It sounded pretty d**m dumb to me, don't you think? But that's the Government for you!

 

[hizoot]

Doesnt this put you in mind of the gustapo? I am all for safety,but come on.....fines for having paint in a coffee can? hardhat in a classroom installing blank off plates? geezus....whens the revolution?